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Had a question on a "fact" i found online...

Posted on: June 15, 2007 - 10:53pm

in love with a ...

Posts: 1

Joined: 2007-05-30

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Had a question on a "fact" i found online...

Been an atheist for a while, but just recently found this site. Ive figured out how to defended my views rather well so i wanted to see a few arguments from the opposite side. I found this and i wasn't quite sure what to think about it...i was hoping someone could give me some information? Maybe if this is a true statement, and if it is, how does an atheist dispute that?

-thanks!

"A second proof is seen in the energy sources that fuel the cosmos. The picture to the right is a picture of the sun. Like all stars, the sun generates its energy by a nuclear process known as thermonuclear fusion. Every second that passes, the sun compresses 564 million tons of hydrogen into 560 million tons of helium with 4 million tons of matter released as energy. In spite of that tremendous consumption of fuel, the sun has only used up 2% of the hydrogen it had the day it came into existence. This incredible furnace is not a process confined to the sun. Every star in the sky generates its energy in the same way. Throughout the cosmos there are 25 quintillion stars, each converting hydrogen into helium, thereby reducing the total amount of hydrogen in the cosmos. Just think about it! If everywhere in the cosmos hydrogen is being consumed and if the process has been going on forever, how much hydrogen should be left?

Suppose I attempt to drive my automobile without putting any more gas (fuel) into it. As I drive and drive, what is eventually going to happen? I am going to run out of gas! If the cosmos has been here forever, we would have run out of hydrogen long ago! The fact is, however, that the sun still has 98% of its original hydrogen. The fact is that hydrogen is the most abundant material in the universe! Everywhere we look in space we can see the hydrogen 21-cm line in the spectrum--a piece of light only given off by hydrogen. This could not be unless we had a beginning!"

It should also be pointed out that even if every star in existance suddenly consumed all it's hydrogen into helium, hydrogen would still be the most common element in the universe, there is that much of it.

Been an atheist for a while, but just recently found this site. Ive figured out how to defended my views rather well so i wanted to see a few arguments from the opposite side. I found this and i wasn't quite sure what to think about it...i was hoping someone could give me some information? Maybe if this is a true statement, and if it is, how does an atheist dispute that?

-thanks!

"A second proof is seen in the energy sources that fuel the cosmos. The picture to the right is a picture of the sun. Like all stars, the sun generates its energy by a nuclear process known as thermonuclear fusion. Every second that passes, the sun compresses 564 million tons of hydrogen into 560 million tons of helium with 4 million tons of matter released as energy. In spite of that tremendous consumption of fuel, the sun has only used up 2% of the hydrogen it had the day it came into existence. This incredible furnace is not a process confined to the sun. Every star in the sky generates its energy in the same way. Throughout the cosmos there are 25 quintillion stars, each converting hydrogen into helium, thereby reducing the total amount of hydrogen in the cosmos. Just think about it! If everywhere in the cosmos hydrogen is being consumed and if the process has been going on forever, how much hydrogen should be left?

Suppose I attempt to drive my automobile without putting any more gas (fuel) into it. As I drive and drive, what is eventually going to happen? I am going to run out of gas! If the cosmos has been here forever, we would have run out of hydrogen long ago! The fact is, however, that the sun still has 98% of its original hydrogen. The fact is that hydrogen is the most abundant material in the universe! Everywhere we look in space we can see the hydrogen 21-cm line in the spectrum--a piece of light only given off by hydrogen. This could not be unless we had a beginning!"

Hi inlove, welcome You asked how an atheist could dispute this fact - I'll do my best to give you a simple response like I would use.

The big problem with the argument above is that the writer seems to have fundamentally misunderstood, or is purposefully misleading his/her audience on, the assertion of those who disagree with creation ex nihilo. They are confusing the fact that all matter in the universe has existed forever with it having always existed in exactly the same state. The big bang occured 13.7 billion years ago but even then it only started the process which has resulted in the formation of the astronomical structures that fill the universe today - it didn't suddenly form stars in the blink of an eye which have been burning hydrogen non-stop since. Of course stars had a beginning, of course they are slowly 'using up' their fuel. They haven't existed forever but the energy they are made of has. Another confusion the writer makes (perhaps it's just poor writing style, but I put it down to ignorance on his part) is that these '25 quintillion' stars are like car engines, steadily using up all of the hydrogen in the universe. The fact is these '25 quintillion' stars (wikipedia says 70 sextillion, by the way) are mostly MADE OF HYDROGEN and are burning themselves! They aren't sucking it in from the space around them. And as Vastet said, hydrogen is a huge percentage of all matter in the universe.

You could also point out that different stars have burned different proportions of their fuel - after sorting out the different rates in relation to size and composition this is proof enough that they were not all made at the same time.

This is a very weak argument and doesn't prove anything for the side the writer is on.

"This is the real world, stupid." - Charlie Brooker

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